From Intake to Audit, Part 2: Documenting Sessions — Psychotherapy, Crisis, Collateral, and Mandated Reports
When you practice alone, you are the counselor, the biller, the compliance officer, and the records custodian, and the note you sign tonight is the only evidence of the session anyone will ever see. This course teaches you to document the four kinds of sessions that fill a solo counselor's week so that every claim holds up. You will learn the CPT time rule for 90832, 90834, and 90837, how to defend a 53-minute session, when interactive complexity (90785) is earned, and how to document group, telehealth, and AI-assisted notes. You will learn when a hard session becomes crisis psychotherapy (90839/90840) and why only face-to-face time counts. You will learn to handle collateral contacts and family sessions (90846/90847), starting with authorization, and to document the contacts no payer will pay for. And you will learn exactly what to write after a mandated report, and how the report changes the session's coding. Sample notes, a branching crisis scenario, four templates, and four practice games, including Note Lab, turn the rules into habits.
6
CE Hours
6
Modules
24
Quiz Questions
5
Est. Minutes
What you'll learn
- Select the correct time-based psychotherapy code (90832, 90834, or 90837) from documented face-to-face time, and write a session-specific rationale that supports 90837.
- Identify the four circumstances that qualify for interactive complexity (90785) and the codes with which it may and may not be reported.
- Distinguish crisis psychotherapy from a difficult routine session, and code crisis services (90839/90840) using only face-to-face time with the client or family.
- Document every required component of a crisis note, including risk assessment, safety planning, resources mobilized, disposition, and follow-up.
- Determine whether a collateral contact is billable as family psychotherapy, billable under a payer-specific collateral rule, or a documented non-billable contact, after confirming authorization.
- Write a factual, complete mandated report entry, place it correctly in the record, and code the session without counting the report call as psychotherapy time.
- Apply group, telehealth, cross-state, and AI-scribe documentation safeguards to everyday notes.
Who it's for
Licensed professional counselors, licensed mental health counselors, and other licensed mental health clinicians in solo or small-group private practice; pre-licensed associates and their supervisors; and agency counselors who document and code their own services. Intermediate level.
Approval & credit
CounselorReady is an NBCC-Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEP #7760). This course awards 6 NBCC-approved CE hours; a certificate is issued on completion. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. CounselorReady is solely responsible for all aspects of the program.